CN109547180B

CN109547180B - Method, apparatus and storage medium for sounding reference signal transmission

Info

Publication number: CN109547180B
Application number: CN201810747197.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 伯根·富兰崛克
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2011-10-08
Filing date: 2011-10-08
Publication date: 2022-03-11
Anticipated expiration: 2031-10-08
Also published as: EP2764749A1; CN109547179A; CN104170506A; CN104170506B; EP2764749A4; CN109547179B; CN109547180A; WO2013049962A1; US9277506B2; US20140211740A1

Abstract

The invention discloses sounding reference signal transmission. In the system, predefining one SRS set, each predefined SRS configuration having a bandwidth and a frequency domain position; and the predefined SRS region includes a set of all Resource Blocks (RBs) available for transmission of the predefined SRS on the uplink carrier, the set of RBs being less than a total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier. According to the invention, the following steps are performed: creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain location of at least one of the predefined SRSs, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region; and transmitting the at least one shifted SRS on the uplink carrier.

Description

Method, apparatus and storage medium for sounding reference signal transmission

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method of sounding reference signal transmission, i.e. a method of transmitting Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) on an uplink carrier of a telecommunication system, in which system:

predefining one SRS set, each predefined SRS configuration having a bandwidth and a frequency domain location; and

the predefined SRS region includes a set of all Resource Blocks (RBs) available for transmission of the predefined SRS on the uplink carrier, the set of RBs being less than a total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier.

The invention also relates to a method, i.e. a method of an eNodeB for configuring and receiving SRS transmissions on an uplink carrier of a telecommunication system, in which system:

the predefined SRS region includes a set of all RBs available for transmission of the predefined SRS on the uplink carrier, the set of RBs being less than a total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier.

The invention also relates to a User Equipment (UE), i.e. a UE for SRS transmission on an uplink carrier of a telecommunication system, in which system:

The invention also relates to an eNodeB, i.e. an eNodeB for configuring and receiving transmissions of SRS on an uplink carrier of a telecommunication system, in which system:

the predefined SRS region includes a set of all Resource Blocks (RBs) for transmitting the predefined SRS on the uplink carrier that is less than a total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier.

The invention also relates to a computer program and a computer program product implementing the above method.

Background

In prior art telecommunication systems like LTE Rel-10 (LTE advanced), terminals (UEs) are able to utilize carrier aggregation. For carrier aggregation, data may be received on multiple downlink carriers simultaneously or transmitted on several uplink carriers simultaneously. According to the LTE Rel-10 standardization document, the concept of a cell is used to denote a combination of downlink resources and, optionally, a combination of uplink resources, wherein a link between a carrier frequency of a downlink resource and a carrier frequency of an uplink resource is shown in system information transmitted on the downlink resource. Thus, the meaning of a cell may be different from that of a geographical area, a cell being commonly used in the context of cellular communication systems.

In this document, the description of the invention will refer to and use symbols in the LTE Rel-10 standard. However, it is clear to the skilled person that the invention can also be implemented in any telecommunication standard having corresponding capabilities as specified by the LTE Rel-10 standard.

In general, UEs are mostly limited to transmitting and receiving on a single cell. This cell is called primary carrier cell (PCell). In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell is a downlink primary component carrier (DL PCC), and in the uplink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell is an uplink primary component carrier (UL PCC).

A secondary carrier cell (SCell) may be used to form one serving cell set together with a PCell according to UE performance. In downlink, the carrier corresponding to the SCell is a downlink secondary component carrier (DL SCC), and in uplink, the carrier corresponding to the SCell is an uplink secondary component carrier (UL SCC). The UE may then aggregate the transmissions of the multiple serving cells.

A Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) including a DL allocation of the SCell or an UL grant of the SCell may be transmitted on the DL SCC or the DL PCC. The latter case is called cross-carrier scheduling.

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates the aggregation of two cells, with cross-carrier scheduling by a PDCCH located on the PCell. In Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, the link between uplink and downlink carriers in a cell is given by a fixed duplex spacing. A UE configured with carrier aggregation may only transmit a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) on its Pcell (i.e., UL PCC).

According to the LTE Rel-10 standard, the configuration of the PCell is UE-specific, i.e. a component carrier may be part of the PCell or SCell, depending on how the component carrier is configured for a given UE. In LTE Rel-10, all cells are backward compatible and can be accessed by UEs of all previous system releases, even if not supporting carrier aggregation.

Thus, even if the SCell is cross-carrier scheduled for a given UE, since the SCell is backward compatible, the DL SCC includes a control region that contains at least 1 OFDM symbol and spans the entire carrier bandwidth. When the carrier bandwidth is 1.6MHz, the control region includes at least 2 OFDM symbols.

PUCCH is transmitted on the outer Resource Blocks (RBs) on UL PCC, and the number of RBs used for PUCCH may vary depending on system load. The PUCCH includes HARQ feedback and Channel State Information (CSI) reports. In LTE Rel-10, RBs are defined to contain time-frequency resources of 0.5ms and 180 kHz. In the prior art invention, it has been shown that the number of RBs for PUCCH can be huge depending on the periodicity configured for channel quality indication/precoding matrix indication/rank indication (CQI/PMI/RI) reporting and scheduling request. RBs not used for PUCCH may be data transmitted on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).

In the prior art, it has been proposed to introduce non-backward compatible scells, i.e. cells that cannot be accessed by UEs in previous system releases. One example thereof is a DL SCC that does not include any control region (i.e., does not include any PDCCH). Therefore, it always needs to be scheduled by cross-carrier scheduling from the PCell. At this point, it turns out that due to the presence of the control region, such non-backward compatible carriers cannot be configured to be PCell for any UE, since the standard does not allow cross-carrier scheduling from Scell to PCell. Therefore, the associated UL SCC never includes PUCCH, since only PCell may contain PUCCH.

Therefore, it has been assumed that if a non-backward compatible DL SCC is introduced, a non-backward compatible carrier not containing any PUCCH will be required. In addition, since there is less control overhead and removing PUCCH may result in more RBs available for PUSCH, it may be assumed that PUCCH is removed to improve efficiency.

To be able to schedule PUSCH, a base station (eNodeB) receives a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) transmitted from a UE. The eNodeB uses the SRS, e.g., to estimate the uplink channel quality. The uplink channel quality is further used for determining RB allocation and for determining the modulation coding scheme employed for PUSCH transmission.

However, in the LTE Rel-10 system, the SRS transmission scheme is designed based on the presence of PUCCH. Since the PUCCH is removed for non-backward compatible UL SCCs, it is difficult to make appropriate and efficient scheduling decisions, since SRS transmission has been optimized for backward compatible UL SCCs with different configurations. In view of these difficulties, non-optimal scheduling is created that does not utilize all available resources in the system.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide an SRS transmission scheme that solves the above problems.

The present invention aims to provide a resource scheduling which is more efficient than the poor scheduling known in the background art.

This object is achieved by the above-mentioned method, i.e. by the steps of:

creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing the predefined frequency domain location of at least one of the predefined SRSs, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region; and

transmitting the at least one shifted SRS over the uplink carrier.

The object is also achieved by the above-mentioned method, i.e. by the steps of:

providing configuration instructions to UEs in the system, the instructions relating to at least one displaced SRS to be created by displacing a predefined frequency domain position of at least one of the predefined SRSs, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB separate from the predefined SRS region; and

receiving at least one shifted SRS over the uplink carrier.

The object is also achieved by the UE described above, i.e. by:

an offset creating entity for creating at least one offset SRS by offsetting a predefined frequency domain location of at least one of the predefined SRS's, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region; and

a transmission entity configured to transmit the at least one shifted SRS over the uplink carrier.

The object is also achieved by the eNodeB as described above, i.e. by:

a configuration entity for providing configuration instructions to UEs in said system, said instructions relating to creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain position of at least one said predefined SRS, thereby creating an extended SRS region comprising at least one other RB separate from said predefined SRS region; and

a receiving entity configured to receive the at least one shifted SRS over the uplink carrier.

The object is also achieved by a computer and a computer program implementing the method described above.

The method, the UE and the eNodeB according to the invention are characterized in that the configuration, transmission and reception of the SRS is performed in such a way that one extended SRS region is created by shifting over one or more predefined SRS frequency domain positions.

Thus, SRS may be transmitted on an increased number of RBs, whereby more RBs on the UL carrier may be probed and correctly scheduled with these RBs.

Thus, since the SRS bandwidth in LTE is less than the bandwidth of the carrier, and the carrier should not include PUCCH, a large number of RBs are released for scheduling. By using the present invention, these released RBs can be contained in the extended SRS region and can be detected. This increases the bandwidth of the UL carrier available for PUSCH transmission. Therefore, by using the present invention, the removal of the PUCCH will improve the spectral efficiency of the system.

Detailed exemplary embodiments and advantages of SRS configuration, transmission and reception according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate some preferred embodiments.

Drawings

Fig. 1 illustrates cross-scheduled carrier aggregation.

Fig. 2 shows an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 shows an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a telecommunication system according to the invention.

Detailed Description

In LTE Rel-10, physical Resource Blocks (RBs) in the uplink carrier are listed as

Each RB packetComprises

A Resource Element (RE) and the relation between RB and resource element k is

From

Resource elements are initially listed and each resource element is mapped onto a subcarrier in turn.

Only 6 bandwidths are predefined in LTE, corresponding to

And 100 RBs.

The number of RBs that can be scheduled on the PUSCH for any UE is further limited to meet

Wherein alpha is₁、α₂、α₃Is a set of non-negative integers.

The bandwidth for configuring the predefined SRS includes the mSRS,_band one RB. The bandwidth of the SRS is limited to

Wherein alpha is₁、α₂、α₃Is a set of non-negative integers. Table 1 is an example of a predefined SRS bandwidth possible in LTE Rel-10. Predefined SRS Bandwidth configuration C in Table 1_SRSIs a cell specific parameter configured by higher layers, and SRS bandwidth configuration B in Table 1_SRSIs a UE specific parameter configured by higher layers.

Table 1 shows the results for the mSRS,_band uplink bandwidth of Nb

Where b is 0, 1, 2, 3. Different SRS bandwidths can be configured, e.g., wideband SRS (m)_SRS,0) Or several narrowband SRS (m)_SRS,1、m_SRS,2、m_SRS,3) One of them. The narrowband SRS will be transmitted with higher power per RE and is beneficial when the UE is power limited. To cover the entire system bandwidth, Frequency Hopping (FH) may be used for the narrowband SRS, thus covering the same RBs as the wideband SRS. Depending on the system bandwidth and the number of RBs desired for PUCCH, an appropriate SRS bandwidth configuration should be selected.

TABLE 1

LTE-advanced supports spatial multiplexing on the uplink, where transmission is over up to 4 antenna ports. One SRS is transmitted per antenna port. The Resource Elements (REs) on the antenna port p predefined for SRS are modulated by the SRS sequence according to the following formula:

where K is a constant, u and v are integers, n_CSE {0, 1, … …, 7} is a configurable cyclic shift, an

Is a complex sequence of values with constants. A (discrete) time domain signal is obtained by a (discrete) fourier transform of the sequence.

When in use

A predefined frequency domain position of the SRS is obtained, which may be regarded as the starting position of the SRS, i.e. the resource element index corresponding to the first RE of the SRS in the frequency domain, and is defined as:

wherein, for a normal uplink subframe,

is defined as:

parameter(s)

Is UE-specific and is implicitly configured by higher layers.

The starting position defined in equation 2 may be obtained from a tree-based design to simplify orthogonal multiplexing of SRSs of different bandwidths from different UEs. The tree attributes may be implemented in Table 1, where m_SRS,i＝N_i+1m_SRS,i+1. This means that for a given configuration C_SRSThe frequency domain locations of the SRS of different UEs, i.e., the locations of the RBs, may overlap completely or not at all. Partial overlap can be avoided in LTE Rel-10, which in turn ensures that SRS can remain orthogonal between UEs.

If no hopping of the SRS is configured, the frequency domain position, i.e., the RE index, remains unchanged and is obtained by using the following formula:

wherein n is_RRC

E

0, 1, … …, 23 is a UE specific parameter configured by higher layers.

If frequency hopping is enabled, parameter b is configured_hopE {0, 1, 3} and

here, F_b(n_SRS) Is a time dependent frequency hopping sequence.

Thus, an LTE-advanced system includes a set of predefined SRSs, which may pass through a set of parameters C_SRS、B_SRS、b_hop、

And n_RRCWith configurable bandwidth and frequency domain location. In addition, the SRS properties with respect to the time domain are also configurable.

In LTE Rel-10, orthogonality between SRS transmitted in the same RB may be obtained by transmission on mutually separate sets of subcarriers. Since the SRS sequence modulates only every second subcarrier (equation 1) and can pass the parameter

Control, so this is possible. Thus, even if the UE is configured with different SRS bandwidths m_SRS,bBy using a difference

The values may implement orthogonal multiplexing.

When the SRS bandwidth mSRS is used,_bare the same (and they are used the same)

Value), a given sequence may also be used

Different cyclic shifts n of_CSAn orthogonal SRS is obtained. For a positive integer q, when the sequence length is q × 8, the cross correlation in the frequency domain between two sequences of the same length using different cyclic shifts is:

since the SRS sequence occupies 6 REs per RB, q ═ 3 yields the minimum sequence length, corresponding to 4 RBs, over which the SRS sequences can become orthogonal.

The condition for orthogonality can also be understood from the point of view of the time domain is that the sequence length should be a multiple of 8 to accommodate 8 non-overlapping cyclically shifted signals. In LTE, all SRS bandwidths are multiples of 4 RBs, as seen in table 1. This means that there is no equality of

And an SRS bandwidth of 75 RBs.

Orthogonality between SRSs of different antenna ports may be obtained by cyclic shift only or by cyclic shift and different transmission combs.

As a non-limiting example, if we consider equation 3, when

And

by assuming mSRS in Table 1,₀96, the lowest starting RB, i.e., lowest frequency domain position, of the SRS becomes

Thus,

RB n

_PRB0, 1, 98, 99 cannot be used for SRS transmission in this example.

Due to C_SRSAre cell-specific configurations, nor can these RBs be used for SRS transmission by any UE in the cell. In LTE Rel-10, a problem may arise because these RBs near the edge of the total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier are typically used for PUCCH and do not need to be probed by transmission of SRS.

Therefore, in the LTE Rel-10 system, the SRS transmission scheme is designed based on the presence of PUCCH, and SRS does not need to be transmitted on RBs available for PUCCH. However, if PUCCH is not present, these RBs may potentially be used by PUSCH, and the inability to probe these RBs becomes a problem. However, it is not possible to transmit SRS on the extra RBs from the removed PUCCH, so making the correct scheduling decision on these RBs may become difficult. This is a problem if the extra RB cannot be used, since this would reduce the efficiency improvement described above.

This can also be seen in table 2, which includes the lowest starting RB for each SRS configuration in table 1,

and a maximum starting RB (resource block) of the RB,

in other words, table 2 shows how different predefined SRS bandwidths are placed. As can be seen from Table 2, when

The number of undetectable RBs is in the range of 4 (C)_SRS0) to 52 (C)_SRS7), which clearly shows a poor utilization of the available transmission resources due to the lower scheduling probability.

TABLE 2

In table 2, it can be observed that when BSRS ═ 0, n^-+m_SRS，0+n^-100. Therefore, the SRS is symmetrically located on the RBs in the carrier. By examining equation 3, when

In the case of an odd number of the groups,

and RB data located on the RB higher than the SRS are

Which is one more RB located on an RB than SRS.

However, as described above, in the LTE Rel-10 system, the SRS transmission scheme is designed based on the presence of PUCCH. In LTE Rel-10, the SRS bandwidth is less than the bandwidth of the carrier. This can be a problem if the carrier does not include a PUCH, since not all RBs available for PUSCH transmission can be detected.

Therefore, in LTE Rel-10, it is not possible to transmit SRS on the extra RBs resulting from the removal of PUCCH, i.e. the released RBs have been used for PUCCH transmission previously, so making appropriate scheduling decisions on these RBs may become difficult. Therefore, since the additional RB cannot be properly used, the improvement of the above efficiency is reduced.

The present invention discloses a method, UE and eNodeB for and for transmitting SRS on a UL carrier in a telecommunication system, the UL carrier not comprising PUCCH, which will solve the above mentioned problems.

According to an aspect of the invention, a set of SRSs is predefined, each predefined SRS configured to have a bandwidth and a frequency domain position. Table 1 above describes one example of such a predefined set of SRSs. Thus, the predefined SRS set is the set defined in evolved Universal terrestrial radio Access (E-UTRA) LTE Rel-10. This predefined set of SRSs covers a predefined SRS region, wherein the SRS region comprises a set of all RBs that may be used when these SRSs are transmitted on an uplink carrier.

As mentioned above, the SRS bandwidth is smaller than the bandwidth of the UL carrier, i.e. the set of RBs in the SRS region is here smaller than the total set of RBs available on the UL carrier.

According to the invention, at least one displaced SRS is created. The displaced SRS is created by displacing a predefined frequency domain location of at least one predefined SRS such that it utilizes RBs that are not covered by the SRS (or any other existing predefined SRS) prior to the displacement. Thus, at least one SRS defined in LTE Rel-10 is typically shifted, whereby other RBs (non-empty set of REs in) are utilized for transmission of the shifted SRS.

Through the shift operation, an extended SRS region is created, which includes at least one other RB. Thus, the extended SRS region includes at least one other RB that is separate from (i.e., not included in) the predefined SRS region. In other words, the SRS region predefined for LTE Rel-10 is extended by displacing at least one SRS that is not covered by at least one other RB by the SRS region, thereby creating an extended SRS region.

Then, at least one shifted SRS is transmitted on the UL carrier utilizing the extended SRS region. Thus, at least one other RB will be probed by the transmission, which means that at least one other RB will be available for high quality data transmission. Thus, by creating this extended SRS region, more RBs are available for PUSCH transmission since the released RBs previously used for PUCCH transmission can now be probed and can be reasonably used for data transmission. The at least one shifted SRS may be transmitted in a normal uplink subframe.

The advantage of the shifting operation is that SRS can be transmitted on all RBs in the carrier even if the total number of RBs in the carrier is not a multiple of 4, i.e., SRS bandwidth multiple.

Another advantage of the present invention is that the present invention reuses SRS sequences of the prior art LTE-advanced system, thereby reducing complexity at the transmitter and receiver.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, to create the extended SRS region, one or more predefined SRSs with the largest bandwidth are shifted. Here, the number of RBs used for transmission of the predefined maximum bandwidth SRS

Number of RBs contained in total set of RBs available on UL carrier

A small delta, where the number delta is a positive integer greater than zero, delta>0. Thus, the total UL bandwidth is

And the SRS bandwidth is

Its ratio to UL bandwidth

Δ RB less.

According to an embodiment, up to Δ +1 different frequency domain positions n are defined for the at least one shifted

SRS

_START0, 1, … …, Δ. Δ +1 different frequency domain location definitions are defined such that these locations include the frequency domain locations available on all UL carriers.

The differently defined frequency domain positions may, for example, be enumerated as

n

_START0, 1, … …, Δ. Then, using Δ +1 different frequency domain positions n_STARTOne or more of the

positions

0, 1, … …, Δ are used for transmitting the at least one shifted SRS.

By this embodiment, SRS transmission is achieved for a telecommunication system, which also makes sounding possible, in which the number of RBs available for data transmission is larger than the maximum SRS bandwidth. In particular, the present invention is applicable to UL carriers that do not contain a control channel (PUCCH).

According to an embodiment of the invention, including all available frequency domain locations results in an extended SRS region containing each of the Δ RBs that are not used for transmission of the predefined SRS with the maximum bandwidth. Thus, the entire UL carrier bandwidth may be used for transmitting SRS.

This is illustrated in fig. 2, which shows a non-limiting example of this embodiment, mSRS,₀＝4，

Δ ═ 2. In FIG. 2, the frequency domain position n_STARTThe predefined frequency domain position of the maximum bandwidth SRS is shown as 1, i.e. the frequency domain position defined only in LTE Rel-10. The edge RB, i.e., n, is clearly shown in FIG. 2_PRB0 and n_PRBNot included in the SRS region, therefore, no edge RB will be detected when a predefined set of SRS is transmitted.

By using this embodiment of the invention, the maximum bandwidth SRS is shifted such that the SRS regions are extended, i.e. one or more shiftedSRS, also covering the edge RB n _PRB0 and n _PRB5, e.g. frequency domain bandwidth position n _START1 and n_STARTIs shown as 2.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to transmit SRS to probe the entire UL carrier bandwidth by allowing multiple frequency domain locations, i.e., by utilizing the shifted SRS.

In this document, the concept of frequency domain location has been shown by using the granularity of the RB. It is to be appreciated that the invention also includes other suitable definitions of frequency domain locations, e.g., frequency domain locations referred to as Resource Elements (REs), i.e., subcarriers. For example, two SRSs may have the same frequency-domain location RB while having different frequency-domain locations RE within those RBs, e.g., by using different transmission combs

The use of displaced SRSs, i.e. different frequency domain positions of the SRS, has the consequence that the SRSs may sometimes partially overlap. If one UE assumes n_STARTAnother UE assumes n 0_START2, this would be the case in fig. 2. The overlap may depend on the bandwidth of the SRS being shifted and, if frequency hopping occurs, on the number of subframes. If partial overlap occurs, this means that orthogonality cannot be maintained even if the shifted SRSs have the same bandwidth. This problem does not preclude the use of shifted SRSs with different frequency domain locations, but the loss of orthogonality may cause a slight degradation in performance.

According to embodiments of the present invention, the orthogonality problem may be solved by using two mutually separated sets of REs for at least one frequency domain position of the at least one shifted SRS. This solution is possible since each RB includes a predefined number of REs. In LTE Rel-10, each RB comprises 12 REs. Thus, orthogonality may be restored for the shifted SRS in the extended SRS region even if the SRS has partial overlap due to the shift.

Two mutually separated sets can be realized by using odd and even numbers of REs of the two shifted SRSs, respectively. Therefore, to create sets that are separated from each other and thus orthogonal, different transmission combs, i.e., odd and even numbers of REs, may be used within the extended SRS region, respectively.

Orthogonality of the shifted SRSs may also be achieved using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), i.e. by transmitting the shifted SRSs with partially overlapping frequency resources in different subframes, implementing two mutually separated sets. This embodiment utilizes different UEs that may be configured with different subframe offsets for LTE Rel-10 systems.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, two different frequency domain positions may be used for the at least one shifted SRS, wherein the two different frequency domain positions result in two different sets of REs being separated from each other. As mentioned above, this solution is possible since each RB comprises a predefined number of REs.

Thus, two different frequency domain locations are more helpful in solving the problem, e.g., n _START0 and Δ, which are associated with two different sets of separate REs, thus restoring the orthogonality of the shifted SRS.

The present invention also includes a method for performing a handover when shifting at least one SRS, i.e., mSRS,₁、mSRS,₂and a mSRS, and a plurality of mSRS,₃(i.e., non-wideband SRS) is a method of creating an extended SRS region. According to this embodiment, an extended SRS region is then created by at least one displaced SRS, which SRS has a bandwidth smaller than the maximum bandwidth predefined for the SRS in the system. Thus, the location of the SRS is changed by changing the predefined frequency domain location of the SRS for at least one predefined SRS, mSRS,₁、mSRS,₂and a mSRS, and a plurality of mSRS,₃displacement is performed.

Hence, here only the predefined non-wideband SRS bandwidth, i.e., mSRS,₁、mSRS,₂and a mSRS, and a plurality of mSRS,₃the frequency domain position is changed. The shifted SRS is frequency domain position shifted, such that one or more non-wideband SRS (mSRS,₁、mSRS,₂and a mSRS, and a plurality of mSRS,₃) Is located within the sounding bandwidth of the maximum bandwidth SRS (mSRS,₀) And vice versa. Accordingly, the extended SRS region includes at least one other RB that is not included in the predetermined SRS region.

According to the present invention, the extended SRS region typically comprises one non-displaced predefined maximum bandwidth SRS and at least one displaced non-maximum bandwidth SRS.

According to an embodiment of the invention, after the at least one shifted SRS has been created, the extended SRS region covers at least one RB, which is aligned with an edge RB in the total set of RBs available on the UL carrier.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, after at least two shifted SRSs have been created, the extended SRS region covers the two shifted SRSs, which are aligned with the first and last RB, respectively, in the total set of RBs available on the UL carrier.

By using these embodiments, therefore, when the remaining RBs can pass the predefined maximum bandwidth SRS mSRS,₀upon detection, the signal may be detected by shifting a signal having a non-maximum bandwidth (mSRS,₁、mSRS,₂、mSRS,₃) The SRS of (1) detects one or more edge RBs, i.e., they may be contained within the extended SRS region. These embodiments also ensure orthogonality, since the non-maximum SRS bandwidth (mSRS,₁、mSRS,₂、mSRS,₃) The displaced versions of (a) never overlap.

This embodiment is shown by way of non-limiting example in fig. 3, for mSRS,₀＝96、mSRS,₁at 48 and the mSRS, the ms,₂24 of, wherein

The wideband SRS (mSRS,₀96) is transmitted over RB 2-97. For the narrowband SRS (mSRS,₁at 48 and the mSRS, the ms,₂24), the frequency domain position after the displacement is made such that RB48-51 is never used. As is apparent from fig. 3, the extended SRS regions include

RBs

0, 1, 98 and 99, which are not included in the SRS region and thus, according to the present invention, are never detected without using the displaced SRS concept.

The method is not limited to excluding RBs from the carrier center used by the narrowband SRS. The only requirement is that the excluded RBs will be in the detection bandwidth of the wideband SRS, so that a continuous extended SRS region can be generated.

This embodiment (i.e., displacing the non-wideband SRS) is also advantageous in that no signaling is required to indicate the frequency domain location of the displaced narrowband SRS. For example, the frequency domain location of the narrowband SRS may be aligned with the first and last RBs of the carrier due to the known carrier bandwidth, as shown in fig. 3.

The excluded RBs may not be used if the shifted narrowband SRS is used in conjunction with frequency hopping. In fig. 3, this means that the set of RBs used for transmitting the frequency-hopped SRS are RBs 0-47 and 52-99, i.e., 96 total RBs. This also ensures that the shifted SRS does not partially overlap within the cell.

The frequency domain location of the shifted narrowband SRS is arranged according to an embodiment, such that the bandwidth mSRS,_in of (A)_iThe shifted SRSs do not overlap in frequency. E.g. N_iThe bandwidth mSRS is guaranteed for 2 frequency domain positions,_iare not overlapping, as shown in fig. 3. Likewise, N₂The bandwidth mSRS is guaranteed for 4 frequency domain positions,₂are not overlapping, etc. Due to N ₀1 and there is no overlap, so for the bandwidth mSRS,₀this condition is fully satisfied for the shifted SRS of (1).

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the extended SRS region, i.e., the at least one shifted SRS, includes the at least one narrowband SRS and the maximum bandwidth SRS. Here, the at least one shifted SRS is created by shifting the predefined frequency domain locations of the at least one predefined narrowband SRS and the maximum bandwidth SRS, respectively.

Information about shifting the predefined SRS (i.e. creating the extended SRS region by changing the frequency domain position of the predefined SRS according to the above method) needs to be transmitted to the UE so that the UE knows how to create the extended SRS region, i.e. how to perform these shifts.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, information about at least one frequency domain location for creating the at least one shifted SRS is implicitly provided to the UE. This has the advantage that no additional signalling is required to convey the information.

According to an embodiment, such information may be provided implicitly with predefined rules. For example, the frequency domain location mayImplicitly obtained by the UE from the enumeration of subframes in which the displaced SRS is transmitted (say t) or any other predefined subframe or subframe pattern, e.g., n_STARTTmod Δ. The relevant predefined rule for associating transmission combs can be, for example, the frequency domain position n_STARTAs a function of (c).

According to an embodiment, this information may be implicitly provided by a predefined pattern of frequency domain locations. For example, the displacement in frequency domain positions may be performed cyclically such that each displaced SRS covers a new set of RBs, e.g. a predefined pattern may be defined such that the UE cycles through (a subset of) Δ +1 different possible frequency domain positions in different subframes. This has the advantage that signalling can be minimised.

According to an embodiment, the system configuration may be utilized to provide such information implicitly. Here, different system configurations are allocated to utilize different frequency domain locations. In the prior art LTE Rel-10 system, for example, table 1 shows that there are several LTE cells that use the same mSRS,₀value C_SRSAnd (4) configuring. Thus, with respect to the same mSRS,₀different configurations of values may relate to different frequency domain locations in a predefined manner. This can be done by assuming that C is present in the system_SRSConfiguring and associating the configuration with a starting position n_STARTAssociation, or by adding a new configuration, wherein C_SRS>7。

Those skilled in the art also understand that if SRS Bandwidth configuration C_SRSProvided by UE specific signaling in any future system release, the invention can also be applied and implemented.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, at least one frequency domain location for creating at least one shifted SRS according to the above method is explicitly provided to the UE by one parameter. This has the advantage that the eNodeB thus obtains a larger free-run placement of the frequency domain locations, since the information about the frequency domain locations is sent by one independent parameter.

According to an embodiment, the parameter x may be generated by transmitting a non-negative integer value^(p)Enabling explicit provision of this information to the UE such that:

where a may be an integer chosen to be suitable so that positive and/or negative displacements may be obtained. In one example, the same parameter x^(p)The values are for all antenna ports. According to embodiments of the present invention, the non-negative integer value parameter may be provided by Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer signaling.

Thus, if 2 bits are used to encode the parameter x^(p)There may be 4 different frequency domain locations to arrange. Parameter x^(p)And

independent, so that the eNodeB has sufficient freedom to independently allocate transmission combs and starting positions n_START。

According to different embodiments, the explicitly transmitted parameter may be a UE-specific or cell-specific positive integer value parameter.

If the parameter configuration is UE-specific, it is possible to allocate different SRS locations to UEs in the cell. Thus, the eNodeB can ensure that all RBs in the carrier can be detected, but a single UE will not detect all RBs in the carrier.

If the parameter configuration is cell specific, such configuration requires a small amount of signaling compared to the UE specific configuration. Although this means that certain RBs will not be detected in a cell, it is an advantage that SRS interference between cells can be reduced by allocating different SRS frequency domain locations to different cells. The performance of the system is improved because better scheduling and link adaptation can be expected. Furthermore, since all UEs employ the same shift in the cell, there is no partial overlap of the shifted SRS and full orthogonality can be guaranteed.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the explicitly transmitted parameter may be transmitted in a physical downlink control signal (PDCCH). In the prior art LTE Rel-10 system, SRS transmission may be triggered by a dominant bit contained in a DL assignment or UL grant carried in the PDCCH. In LTE Rel-10, this is referred to as trigger type 1, i.e. periodic SRS transmission.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, other bits are introduced in the PDCCH to indicate more information of the frequency domain location of the shifted SRS. With 2 such bits, 4 different frequency domain positions can be indicated, which is sufficient for the extended SRS region to be created, i.e. for applying the present invention in the prior art LTE Rel-10 system.

However, other bits increase the control overhead in the system. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present invention relate to signaling without increasing the control overhead in the PDCCH.

According to an embodiment, existing bits in the PDCCH are reused to indicate more information of the frequency domain location of the displaced SRS. For example, for

PDCCH DCI format

4, 2 bits include an SRS request field and are used to trigger SRS transmission. Other DCI formats exist that contain a 1-bit SRS request field. Table 3 shows an example of the trigger bit interpretation. Thus, the trigger bit determines which of the 3 SRS configurations should be employed.

Value of SRS request field	Description of the invention
		’00’	SRS triggering other than type 1
‘01’	First SRS parameter set configured by higher layers
		‘10’	Second SRS parameter set configured by higher layers
‘11’	Third SRS parameter set configured by higher layers

TABLE 3

Here, the information on the frequency domain position of the SRS may be encoded by reducing the number of SRS parameter sets. For example, if it is assumed that there is only a first set of SRS parameters, the values '10' and '11' may encode the frequency domain position n with the first set of SRS parameters_STARTOther information of interest.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, explicit provision of such information to the UE may be achieved by signaling with reuse of existing bits in the PDCCH.

The set of REs used within the extended SRS region, i.e., the transmission comb, is selected to correspond to only 1 bit of information. In the prior art LTE Rel-10 system, the parameters are passed

Transmit transmission comb, offset

Is that

As a function of (c). Thus, is composed of

The transmitted bits may be reused and associated to a frequency domain position n_START。

E.g. if n is used_STARTWhen is equal to 0

And n_STARTWhen ═ Δ

The following expression applies:

according to an embodiment of the present invention, the independent parameters used for explicit signaling encode the parameters with unused code points in the PDCCH. Therefore, no other bits are introduced in the PDCCH, but unused code points in the PDCCH are reused to code the code frequency domain position of the shifted SRS.

Reuse of unused code points may be achieved by restricting use of at least one field in the PDCCH or performing higher layer configuration of at least one field in the PDCCH.

The functionality provided by some information fields may be discarded if the PDCCH triggers SRS. For example, in LTE Rel-10, there are 1 bit in DCI format 4, determining the resource allocation type of PUSCH (single cluster or multi-cluster). If the resource allocation is defined to be of any type when the value of the SRS request field is non-zero, the frequency domain position of the displaced SRS may be encoded using the resource allocation bits. That is, the restriction of the use of at least one field in the PDCCH is used to encode the frequency domain location of the shifted SRS.

If the PDCCH triggers SRS, the functionality provided by some information fields may be provided by higher layers, e.g., MAC or RRC signaling. For example, in LTE Rel-10, there are 1 bit in DCI format 4, determining the resource allocation type of PUSCH (single cluster or multi-cluster). This bit in the PDCCH may be used to encode the frequency domain location of the SRS when the value of the SRS request field is non-zero if the resource allocation type can be configured by higher layers. The UE will then adopt the resource allocation type indicated by the higher layer signaling when the value of the SRS request field is non-zero. When the value of the SRS request field is zero, the bit may be used to encode the type of resource allocation originally defined for the bit. Other bits in the higher layer signaling are generally not a problem compared to increasing bits in the PDCCH.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of an eNodeB configuring and receiving SRS transmissions on an uplink carrier of a telecommunications system. The configuring includes providing configuration instructions to the UE regarding at least one displaced SRS to be created. The UE creates at least one displaced SRS by displacing the predefined frequency domain location of the at least one predefined SRS in accordance with the instructions, thereby creating an extended SRS region. The eNodeB then receives at least one shifted SRS on the UL carrier, whereby at least one other RB can be probed.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing embodiments or part of the program may be implemented by a program instructing relevant hardware components, and the program may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium.

Fig. 4 schematically illustrates a telecommunication system 400 according to the present invention. The telecommunication system 400 comprises at least one eNodeB410 and at least one UE communicating with each other over a radio interface 430 comprising UL and DL carriers.

In the eNodeB410, a hardware component 411 is a computer, a processor, a DSP (digital signal processor), an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit), or the like, and is connected to an antenna 413 that receives and transmits signals through a radio interface 430. When the hardware component 411 is, for example, a processor, a DSP, a computer, etc., the hardware component is connected to the computer-readable storage medium 412. The computer readable storage medium 412 comprises ROM/RAM, floppy disk, optical disk, etc. and is used to provide the hardware component 411 with certain instructions that are required for performing the method of the present invention, i.e. for performing the following steps: providing configuration instructions to the UE regarding at least one displaced SRS to be created, whereby the UE creates at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain position of at least one of said predefined SRS according to the instructions, thereby creating an extended SRS region; and receiving at least one shifted SRS on the UL carrier, whereby at least one other RB can be probed.

In other words, according to an aspect of the present invention, an eNodeB for configuring and receiving sounding reference signal transmissions is proposed. The eNodeB comprises a configuration entity for providing configuration instructions to UEs in the system. The instructions relate to creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain position of at least one predefined SRS, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region. The eNodeB also includes a receiving entity to receive the at least one shifted SRS on an uplink carrier.

Accordingly, in the UE420, the hardware means 421 is a computer, processor, DSP (digital signal processor), ASIC (application specific integrated circuit), etc. and is connected to at least one antenna 423 for receiving and transmitting signals over the radio interface 430. When the hardware component 421 is, for example, a processor, a DSP, a computer, etc., the hardware component is connected to the computer-readable storage medium 422. The computer readable storage medium 422 comprises ROM/RAM, floppy disks, optical disks, etc. and is used to provide the hardware means 421 with certain instructions that are required for performing the method of the present invention, i.e. for performing the following steps: creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain location of at least one predefined SRS, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region; and

transmitting the at least one shifted SRS over the UL carrier.

In other words, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the UE is used for SRS transmission. The UE includes a displacement creation entity for creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain location of the at least one predefined SRS, thereby creating an extended SRS region comprising at least one other RB that is distinct from the predefined SRS. The displacement creation entity may receive instructions from the eNodeB used in the creation. The UE further comprises a transmission entity for transmitting the at least one shifted SRS on the UL carrier.

The UE and eNodeB described in the present invention may be used to perform any of the steps of the methods of the present invention involving the UE and eNodeB, respectively.

The different steps of the embodiments of the method of the invention described above may be combined or performed in any suitable order. Provided, of course, that the requirements of using one step of the process of the invention in combination with another step are met.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other embodiments may be devised, and that other modifications, variations and/or additions may be made to the above-described exemplary embodiments. It is to be understood that the present invention includes all such other embodiments, modifications, alterations, and/or additions which fall within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for sounding reference signal transmission, comprising:

creating at least one shifted SRS by shifting a predefined frequency domain position of at least one predefined SRS, thereby creating an extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region, wherein the at least one predefined SRS belongs to a predefined SRS set, each predefined SRS configuration in the SRS set having a bandwidth and a frequency domain position, a predefined SRB region including a set of RBs available for transmission of the SRS, the set of RBs being smaller than a total set of RBs available on an uplink; and

transmitting the at least one shifted SRS on the uplink;

wherein the number of RBs used for transmission of SRS of predefined maximum bandwidth

A number of RBs included in the total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier

Less Δ, the number Δ being an integer greater than zero, Δ>0。

2. The method of claim 1, wherein up to Δ +1 different frequency domain positions n of the at least one shifted SRS_STARTA frequency domain location is defined to include available on all uplink carriers 0, 1, … … Δ;

using said up to Δ +1 different frequency domain positions n_STARTOne or more of the positions 0, 1, … …, Δ are used for transmitting the at least one shifted SRS.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the available frequency domain locations contain an extended SRS region for each of the Δ RBs not used for transmission of the predefined SRS with the maximum bandwidth.

4. The method of claim 1,

each RB includes a predefined number of resource elements REs; and

two mutually separate sets of REs may be used for at least one frequency domain location of the at least one shifted SRS.

5. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that said two mutually separated sets are realized by one of the following methods:

the two sets are separated from each other within the extended SRS region by using even and odd numbers of REs, respectively; and

the two sets are separated from each other by using time division multiplexing TDM.

6. The method of claim 1,

each RB includes a predefined number of resource elements REs; and

two different frequency domain locations may be used for the at least one shifted SRS, the two different frequency domain locations resulting in two different sets of REs that are separated from each other.

7. The method of claim 1,

the at least one shifted SRS comprises at least one SRS with a bandwidth less than a maximum bandwidth predefined for the SRS in the system;

creating at least one shifted SRS by shifting a predefined frequency domain position of at least one of the predefined SRSs, the predetermined SRS having a bandwidth less than the maximum bandwidth.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the extended SRS region covered by the creating the at least one displaced SRS covers at least one RB that is aligned with an edge RB in a total set of RBs available on an uplink carrier.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one shifted SRS comprises two shifted SRSs that are aligned with a first and a last RB, respectively, of a total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the extended SRS region includes at least one displaced SRS with a bandwidth less than the maximum bandwidth, and a predefined SRS with the maximum bandwidth.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating at least one shifted SRS comprises:

creating at least one shifted SRS by shifting a predefined frequency domain location of at least one of the predefined SRSs and the SRS with the largest bandwidth, the predefined SRS having a bandwidth smaller than the largest bandwidth.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a User Equipment (UE) acquires the at least one frequency domain location for creating the at least one shifted SRS by utilizing one or more of:

pre-defining rules;

a predefined pattern of frequency domain locations; and

and (5) configuring the system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a User Equipment (UE) acquires the at least one frequency domain location for creating the at least one shifted SRS by utilizing at least one transmitted parameter.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one transmitted parameter is a positive integer value parameter.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the at least one transmitted parameter is configured as any one of the group of:

a UE-specific parameter; and

cell specific parameters.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one transmitted parameter is provided by Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer signaling.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein said at least one transmitted parameter is carried on a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one transmitted parameter reuses existing bits in the PDCCH.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the extended SRS region includes a total set of RBs available on the uplink carrier.

20. An apparatus for sounding reference signal transmission, comprising:

means for creating at least one displaced SRS by displacing a predefined frequency domain position of at least one predefined SRS, thereby creating one extended SRS region including at least one other RB that is separate from the predefined SRS region, wherein the at least one predefined SRS belongs to a predefined SRS set, each predefined SRS configuration in the SRS set having a predefined bandwidth and a predefined frequency domain position, the predefined frequency domain position including a set of RBs available for transmission of the SRS, the set of RBs being smaller than a total set of RBs available on an uplink; and

means for transmitting the at least one shifted SRS on the uplink;

A small delta, the number delta being an integer greater than zero, delta>0。

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the apparatus is further configured to implement the method of any one of claims 1-19.

22. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 19.